Special Cell cop in Liaquat’s arrest indicted in fake encounter by NHRC; 2 others feature in 6 such cases

The Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association (JTSA) of New Delhi, in a statement issued here, said that the three of the four officers of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell who are involved in the “current ‘Hizb operation’ feature rather prominently in the JTSA report: DCP Sanjeev Yadav was key player in five; Sanjay Dutt in six and Rahul Kumar in seven of the 16 cases in a report on the cases where people were framed by the police.

Last year on September 18, the JTSA released a 175-page report, Framed, Damned, Acquitted: Dossiers of a ‘Very’ Special Cell, which documented 16 cases in which the Special Cell of the police had framed people as terrorists. Most of the men in such cases had been found from Kashmir.

Loading...

Earlier this week, Liaquat Ali Shah, a Kashmiri, was arrested on his way from Gorakhpur to Delhi. He was traveling with his family. The Delhi Police claimed that he is a terrorist from Hizb-ul-Mujahideen outfit and sent from Pakistan to carry out major attack in Delhi, ahead of Holi, to avenge Afzal Guru’s execution. Shah’s family and the Jammu and Kashmir police says that he was returning to Kashmir as a surrendered militant under the state government’s Rehabilitation Policy for the ex-militants who are still across Line of Control.

“Many of these prize catches of the Special Cell happened to be either police or IB informers, surrendered militants, or men with whom one agency or the other had a score to settle. To that extent, Special Cell’s latest, sensational Holi gift – of having foiled a major terror attack in the capital city by Hizbul Mujahideen – follows the set narrative,” read the JTSA statement.

The statement also adds, “[…] again, predictably, the MHA [Ministry of Home Affairs] has rushed to the defence of the pampered Special Cell. It is this continuing impunity which has emboldened agencies to pick, detain, arrest and charge people with terrorism. It should be recalled also that DCP Sanjeev Yadav was indicted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for masterminding the fake encounter at Sonia Vihar in 2006 (when he was an ACP).”

Till this impunity ends, the JTSA said, we shall continue to witness these press conferences, the display of seized arms and explosives, the conferring of medals and gallantry awards, and the manufacturing of fidayeens.

Subscribe to our mailers

Your email

The Kashmir Walla is a multimedia platform of politics, culture, business and literature. We support and help initiate conversations around these themes with an aim to question the traditional mindsets, mainstream discourses and entrenched positions.